I'm surprised...
that no-one has pointed out that it's simply a class thing.

You see, back in the day, the upper-class would drink their tea using cups of very, very thin china. If they put the tea in first, the heat of the tea would cause the thin china to crack. However, if you put the milk into the cup first, it prevented the sudden jump in temperature that you'd get when the first splashes of tea landed, and so the ultra thin teacups would not crack.

Note, that this is only relevant when pouring pre-brewed tea from a teapot. Nowadays, if you are brewing tea in your mug, you get a stronger / faster cup of tea by adding the milk after brewing.

Of course, all that I have said can be easily discounted as I drink my Earl Grey (that I have had dutifully shipped out from England by my mum) with milk and sugar (*waits for the mob bearing pitchforks and burning torches to arrive at my door).
(Heggy, Mon 4 Apr 2011, 11:36, 1 reply)

Really?
I thought that the thin china thing was a myth. Thin glass is actually less likely to crack because you don't create a big temperature gradient across it. Is it the same for china?
(flimflam_machine, Tue 5 Apr 2011, 16:39, closed)